I feel ya on the not trusting people Bookfan.
Here in Texas I know for fact the the majority of people around me voted this terrifying, hateful world we now live in. I worry that they've been hiding their real selves from us and am afraid I will see the hate pour right out at any moment. Afraid of what I will do if I do witness it. I do not feel like I live in as safe a world as I did Nov. 7th.

We should be still working to make communities safe that weren't before. Instead we are about to make no place safe. Maybe it'll come together and calm down. Maybe we can stop him from doing some of the terrible things he wants to do. But I bet America just sits back and looks away as long as they are not the ones affected by each of these things. I saw a video of a man in a truck with Trump stickers all over it chasing black drivers and getting out and threatening them with a baseball bat. Trump's America...

Bookfan, at least the writer did say, "If Trump appoints people who represent despicable or unacceptable views to his administration, then he is responsible and it makes sense to point that out and to be critical of it."

When did I post that link? This morning? A lot's changed since this morning - very scary. The people he's appointing - omg. And I was hoping the suits against him could be used for impeachment. Not good.

Hundreds of Jewish scholars of holocaust history call on Americans to 'mobilise in solidarity' against Trump:

'Our reading of the past impels us to resist any attempts to place a vulnerable group in the crosshairs of nativist racism'

“As scholars of Jewish history, we are acutely attuned to the fragility of democracies and the consequences for minorities when democracies fail to live up to their highest principles.

“The United States has a fraught history with respect to Native Americans, African Americans and other ethnic and religious minorities. But this country was founded on ideals of liberty and justice and has made slow (progress) and opportunities for all.”

It goes on to describe “the racial, ethnic, gender-based, and religious hatred” that has been "provoked" during Mr Trump's campaign and in the wake of his election, citing the “numerous attacks on immigrant groups” from both the President-elect and his supporters."

"Since Mr Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton there has been a spike in reports of hate crimes across the US, with more than 200 incidents reported in the three days after the election, according to the Southern Poverty Law Centre."

Articles from front page of The Independent:

"Bernie Sanders: I hope very, very, very much that Donald Trump does not jail Hillary Clinton"

I think I posted this before: Sinclair Lewis said in the 1920's or 1930's that if facism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.

I noticed Lewis' book "It Can't Happen Here" about facism in America, written in the 1930's has all copies checked out with a wait list at our library. Normally - a book like that - there'd be only a couple or none checked out.

And thanks for the Gutenburg link, Lynx. Now I can refer people who want the book & don't want to wait for it. Need to see if "All The King's Men", Pulitzer Prize winner by Robert Penn Warren is on Gutenburg. May not be old enough. It's about a Populist demagogue based on Huey Long who was gov. of Louisiana in the 1930's. I was looking around the web for stuff about the book & someone said Lewis wasn't much of an artist, but was great on social commentary.

Other books one of my coworkers & I are putting out on the staff picks display: Animal farm, fiction & non-fiction books about Manzanar (US Japanese interment camps during WWII), books with African American theme or content (easy to find because we have spine labels for them like we do for holiday books), books about dystopias like "A Handmaid's Tale".

The Electoral College Was Meant to Stop Men Like Trump From Being President

It is “desirable,” Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 68, “that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of” president. But is “equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station.” These “men”—the electors––would be “most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.” ***And because of their discernment—because they possessed wisdom that the people as a whole might not—“the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications***.” ...

As Michael Signer explains, the framers were particularly afraid of the people choosing a demagogue. The electors, Hamilton believed, would prevent someone with “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity” from becoming president. And they would combat “the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.” They would prevent America’s adversaries from meddling in its elections. The founders created the Electoral College, in other words, in part to prevent the election of someone like Donald Trump.

Were the electors to meet on December 19 and decide that Donald Trump is unfit to be president, all hell would break loose. Trump’s supporters, and even some who opposed him, would say the election had been stolen. Their worst fears about America’s “rigged” system of government would be confirmed. The president who the electors chose—even if it were Hillary Clinton, who beat Trump by over a million votes—would lack legitimacy in the eyes of much of the public. It’s unclear whether such a president could effectively govern. Violence might break out. Moreover, once the precedent was set, future electors would become more likely to act independently again. The process of choosing them would grow fraught. America’s entire system of presidential elections would grow unstable.

Could the danger posed by electing Trump exceed the enormous danger posed by stopping him? It could, for four reasons.

>The first is climate change.
>The second reason to think that allowing a Trump presidency
might be more dangerous than overturning it is the threat of nuclear war.
>The third reason it’s not crazy for electors to consider defying the popular will in their states is the prospect of what Trump might do in the event of a terrorist attack.
>The final reason it’s worth debating an Electoral College rejection of Trump is the potential that his presidency could spark a constitutional crisis. During the campaign, in a stunning break from American tradition, Trump repeatedly suggested that he might not accept the outcome.

Bottom line. I was busy working the polls and nursing two sick piggies, so I haven't had time to post, but I have drawn great comfort from the postings in here.

If I weren't worried about the environment, animal welfare, climate change and nuclear war, I'd sit back and let him mess things up now that the Republicans have no one else to blame.

By all accounts, Trump is a terrible manager, ignorant about both policy and the legislative process. His staff people bicker constantly and he is picking a group of keystone cops for cabinet positions. My great hope is that he simply can't get anything done. He's already coming off his build a wall pledge and his Muslim registry, suddenly realizing how dumb these ideas are. He can't get out of the Paris Accord very easily (three year waiting period before a long process of withdrawal) and other countries have threatened trade wars if he tries. He might get so twisted up that nothing gets done.

I also think it is quite possible the Republicans will impeach him. Most of them seem to hate him and some can see that his his lack of support for the First Amendment and conflict of interest restrictions make him quite dangerous. Of course, that just means we would be stuck with the more effective DC insider Pence, who is just as terrible, albeit in a more conventional way. However, impeachment proceedings could further tie Trump up.

We need to do everything we can to restrict the damage Trump can do and then get out and work the mid term elections to put as many D congress people in to block his nasty ideas.